Featured Commentary category, Page 109
David Dausey: Keep holiday festivities smaller to prevent covid-19 from getting bigger
Americans need to change their behaviors in advance of the holidays unless they want a very grim start to the new year. If we don’t, cases of covid-19 could overwhelm the health care systems in many regions in the country and deaths will continue to escalate. Without significant changes to...
Ron Klink: When addressing drug prices, there’s a right way and a wrong way
In what may have been the last significant action of his presidency, President Trump recently issued two executive orders designed to lower prescription drug spending in Medicare. The first order would eliminate the current system of “rebates” for prescription drugs covered by Medicare Part D. The second order, dubbed the...
Catherine Rampell: The best way for Biden to save money later
There are two main arguments for Congress to provide generous, immediate fiscal relief. One is based on humanitarian concerns; the other, economic growth. President-elect Joe Biden should use both in his continuing efforts to sway penny-pinching lawmakers. On Friday, in response to a particularly “grim” jobs report, Biden made a...
Caleb Fuller: ‘E’ for ‘Excellence: — remembering Walter E. Williams
Walter E. Williams, prolific author, piercing cultural commentator, old school economist (that’s a good thing), devoted husband, loving father and longtime friend of Grove City College, has passed from this world. To the rest of America, Williams, who died Dec. 2, was known as a “suffer-no-fools” commentator on perennial hot-button...
Gene Barr: Gov. Wolf leaves many out in cold with covid liability veto
In a year that’s already been plagued by financial hardships, small businesses, nonprofits, day cares, and the education and medical communities recently received more troubling news when Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed critical liability protections on the last day of the 2019-20 legislative session — effectively leaving these industries out in...
Peter Morici: Biden must make a covid-19 stimulus bill happen now
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” the oft-quoted opening line from “A Tale of Two Cities,” is an apt description of the American economy. And we know how those times ended — in revolution. The stock market booms as if America shines more brightly...
Jonathan Goldstein: How we know who wins elections, and why it matters
By now we know the story of the 2020 election. One with heroes and villains. Laudatory tales and vile conspiracies. And, most importantly, a fog that obscured the winner for days. In a normal year, we tune into the news on election night to learn who won and who lost....
Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Biden is not ‘The One’ to fix America’s race problem
SAN DIEGO — Joe Biden wants to be the civil rights president. You don’t say? That old dog isn’t likely to learn new tricks, and so it’s no shock that the 78-year-old president-elect sees America in Black-and-White. However, what is new — and noteworthy — is that the Biden White...
Kathleen Parker: Biden press team honeymoon won’t last
The breathlessness surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s communications and press offices — all women! — should be considered a honeymoon that will end at 1 a.m. Jan. 21, the day after Biden’s inauguration. It’s all in the stars. Constellations, that is, of media superstars, many of whom have become household names...
Erik Paulsen: Executive order for price controls will harm innovation and patients
President Trump recently signed a new executive order to reform our health care system. While his desire to lower costs for patients is appropriate, the proposed changes would do more harm than good. The new “most-favored- nation” executive order would tie Medicare payments for certain medicines to the lowest price...
Dr. David Dausey: Be a patriot and roll up your sleeve for covid-19 vaccine
In the coming months, Americans will have the opportunity to do the most patriotic thing they can do for their country: roll up their sleeves and get a vaccine for covid-19. The push to develop a vaccine for covid-19 is truly unprecedented. Coronaviruses were first detected in humans in 1965....
Robert Smith: We’ve got enough environmental regulations
“The environment has never been cleaner in my lifetime than now.” That’s the way I begin a part of my guest lecture to business classes at a local college. The look on the faces of the products of our public-school educational system is one of disbelief. As a nearby, familiar...
David Wassel: Dissecting the 2020 election
At first blush, the Democrats prevailed, although with considerable nuance and caveats. Here’s a rundown. Vice President Joe Biden didn’t win the broad sweep of states that was advertised. But only the 270 Electoral College vote threshold, which he crossed, matters. Democrats didn’t win expected Senate seats, denying them a...
Kate Boulton: To help end overdose, we have to transform probation
As an increasing number of criminal justice policymakers acknowledge that we can’t punish our way out of the overdose crisis and as America faces a broader reckoning around our criminal legal system, we must address community supervision and its role as a driver of mass incarceration. For people who struggle...
Rep. John Joyce: American innovation promises covid-19 hope
For centuries, America has been the land of promise, and we have led the way in lifesaving advancement. In the span of my medical career alone, I have witnessed remarkable innovation — from groundbreaking discoveries to new therapeutics and even cures for deadly diseases. In 2020, America’s scientists and researchers...
Peter Morici: Expanding pool of skilled labor key to Biden resurrecting economy
President-elect Joe Biden ran on a platform to address climate change, remedy inequality, resurrect the economy and implement a more focused covid-19 strategy. Preliminary tests indicate Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine could be as much as 95% effective, and others are on the way from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca. However, producing...
Nathan Benefield: Don’t raise taxes while Pa. families are hurting
Pennsylvanians have made tough decisions amid the profound economic costs of the covid-19 pandemic. Millions of Pennsylvanians lost their jobs temporarily or permanently this year. Sadly, families continue to struggle and sacrifice to stay afloat. In the coming state budget debate, lawmakers and the governor need to back them up...
Sheldon Jacobson: Food and consumer goods supply chains remain resilient
We can all remember the run on consumer goods like toilet paper and cleaning supplies back in March and April 2020. With an unknown, invisible virus circulating among us, any items or surface touched by a human hand were a target for disinfection. Groceries and other items delivered to our...
Local nurse leaders: Please be vigilant on covid-19
The recent rise in covid-19 cases across the United States is a serious reminder of the strength and longevity of this pandemic. Western Pennsylvania is not immune to the increased number of cases. There have been more than 1,000 deaths and over 45,000 in our 14-county region, and we continue...
Kenneth Thorpe and Erik Paulsen: Superbugs will kill millions — unless Congress acts
We’re in the midst of the worst health crisis of the 21st century — and it’s not covid-19. The coronavirus is a terrible disease, of course. In just 10 months, it has killed more than 1 million people around the globe. But there’s a far more dangerous plague circulating through...
Peter Morici: With Biden, relations with Europe will only be cosmetically better
Many establishment foreign-policy experts blame Donald Trump for the poor state of relations with Europe. However, a Joe Biden presidency cannot resolve enduring differences and dysfunctions that stress trans-Atlantic cooperation. For example, Biden can stop blocking World Trade Organization dispute settlement, and rejoin the World Health Organization and the Paris...
Carol Ann Gregg: Farmers, consumers beware — natural gas foes have vision but no plan
Farmers in Pennsylvania and other states have good reason to be uneasy about future energy policies popularizing the political fringes. Unlike a sudden and unpredictable pandemic that threw the world into turmoil, differing paths on the use of America’s abundant fossil fuel resources could have predictably bad consequences for agriculture...
Sen.-elect Cris Dush: Confirming election results needed for public trust
Pennsylvania is an epicenter of the 2020 general election. Just 82,000 votes separate former Vice President Joe Biden from President Trump, but in the world we live in, whichever candidate ultimately wins, half the country — and half of Pennsylvania — may distrust the results. I represent Indiana and Jefferson...
Sen. Jay Costa: Our election was fair and secure
I did not expect President Trump to take his loss gracefully, but I have to admit I did not expect to see my Republican colleagues in the General Assembly run to his aid and make bad-faith allegations about our election. Pennsylvania ran a methodical, secure and accurate election, and I...
Joe Welch: Teachers resolve to do best for students
“Character is who you are when nobody else is watching.” A middle-school English teacher introduced this phrase to me. We recited it each day in class, and it is a lesson that I have carried with me throughout my life and into my teaching career. Now, in 2020, I think...
